Headline is a bit sensational but here is the context:
As for the “Flynn is Q” tweet, the court said no reasonable jury could find that the remark defamed Flynn, noting that Flynn “failed in the first instance to demonstrate that the statement was even capable of being proven true or false.”
Describing Flynn’s relationship with the QAnon movement as “complicated,” the decision pointed out that Flynn had publicly denounced QAnon as a “terrorist organization” while simultaneously authorizing the sale of Flynn-themed merchandise “affixed with highly specific slogans commonly associated with QAnon, such as WWG1WGA.”
The panel also emphasized that Flynn, who has the burden of showing Wilson’s comments were false, never provided the court with a sworn statement clarifying that he is not a leader of QAnon.
“Although the record persuades us that most QAnon adherents believe that there is at least one Q (and maybe more), we cannot discern much else about that person or persons, whether inadvertently or by design,” the decision states. “Nevertheless, this ambiguity does not create a genuine issue of material fact for the jury to resolve. If Flynn is not Q (or one of the Qs), then it presumably would not have been hard for him to have filed an affidavit with the trial court to that effect.”
The court went on to call the “Q” tweet an example of generally “nonactionable name calling” without any “verifiable core.”
In closing, the court lauded the U.S. as a country with a profound commitment to the principle that “debate on public issues should be uninhibited” and that such debate “may well include vehement, caustic, and sometimes unpleasantly sharp attacks.”
Benefit = Open chatter in the public square...digital soldiers on the march! NCSWIC-WWG1WGA!!!
Headline is a bit sensational but here is the context:
As for the “Flynn is Q” tweet, the court said no reasonable jury could find that the remark defamed Flynn, noting that Flynn “failed in the first instance to demonstrate that the statement was even capable of being proven true or false.”
Describing Flynn’s relationship with the QAnon movement as “complicated,” the decision pointed out that Flynn had publicly denounced QAnon as a “terrorist organization” while simultaneously authorizing the sale of Flynn-themed merchandise “affixed with highly specific slogans commonly associated with QAnon, such as WWG1WGA.”
The panel also emphasized that Flynn, who has the burden of showing Wilson’s comments were false, never provided the court with a sworn statement clarifying that he is not a leader of QAnon.
“Although the record persuades us that most QAnon adherents believe that there is at least one Q (and maybe more), we cannot discern much else about that person or persons, whether inadvertently or by design,” the decision states. “Nevertheless, this ambiguity does not create a genuine issue of material fact for the jury to resolve. If Flynn is not Q (or one of the Qs), then it presumably would not have been hard for him to have filed an affidavit with the trial court to that effect.”
The court went on to call the “Q” tweet an example of generally “nonactionable name calling” without any “verifiable core.”
In closing, the court lauded the U.S. as a country with a profound commitment to the principle that “debate on public issues should be uninhibited” and that such debate “may well include vehement, caustic, and sometimes unpleasantly sharp attacks.”